[plug] Oxymoron: Microsoft, innovation

[Shannon Carver]

Kai, 

When you mentioned Ferret yesterday, I was trying to think f where I'd seen
the name before.  At a company I used to work for a while ago one of the
employers wrote a web based application to rival Ferret/Medisys?!  It was
built for Remote Aboriginal Communities, but is basically just a big
(Australian built, Medicare/HIC/PBS) patient/doctor/nurse and
appointment/prescription management application.

I'm not trying to plug it or anything, but if you're looking for a
Linux-able alternative, a web based application might be just the way to go.
Message me off list if you're at all interested.

Getting back to the topic, I think Exchange/Outlook for the small->large
office situation is the one area, in which Microsoft holds a key position.
I must admit I don't know of a better solution (I've only dabbled slightly
with OpenGroupWare and Evolution), but with regards to office
communication/scheduling the Office/Exchange combination is fantastic.

Shannon

> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-bounces at plug.org.au [mailto:plug-bounces at plug.org.au] On Behalf
> Of Kai Jones
> Sent: Thursday, 15 June 2006 11:03 AM
> To: plug at plug.org.au
> Subject: RE: [plug] Oxymoron: Microsoft, innovation
> 
> We have some applications here (Ferret, Medical Director), I've googled
> the hell out of that and haven't found a Linux version, nor do I know if
> they'll work adequately through WINE or similar.
> 
> I don't think a 100% move to OSS here would be practical, too many
> things implemented by people who know MS and nothing else, but a few
> months ago I began the crusade to get everyone to switch to Firefox and
> of course a lot of people are like "I want my Microsoft Explorer" and
> they'll require some work but we'll see.
> 
> The main problem is because we use Exchange server, and Office 2003 Pro
> Corporate there are a lot of Office <-> Exchange features which I'm not
> sure are available on OSS' equivalent, but I'm happy to be corrected on
> that.
> 
> Cheers
> Kai
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-bounces at plug.org.au [mailto:plug-bounces at plug.org.au] On
> Behalf Of Jason Posavec
> Sent: Thursday, 15 June 2006 10:47 AM
> To: plug at plug.org.au
> Subject: Re: [plug] Oxymoron: Microsoft, innovation
> 
> Are all the Pluggers in positions of influence encouraging their
> companies to use ODF  where possible? And when told that Microsoft
> Office doesn't support this format, are they then explaining that OOo
> has all the functionality of MO, but without the productivity-robbing
> bells and whistles?
> 
> Forcing somebody to change completely to Linux in one step is a huge
> ask. But walking them one application at a time (OOo, Firefox,
> Thunderbird, GIMP, Jabber) until there's nothing left but the OS to
> change might not be such a sudden shock.
> 
> Jason
> 
> 
> 
> Kai Jones wrote:
> > We all know it, but here's a nice article for any of your friends who
> > have been seduced by the dark side, it's short enough to keep their
> > interest raher than being a novel that they'll see and go "can't be
> > bothered"
> > http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS9006356588.html
> >
> > ...and before you say it, yes I am writing this using MS Outlook via
> > Exchange server, I'd love to use open source in every area practical
> > here but some people's minds take a long time to change.
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